Alright, I know you are all waiting for me to update, and I will, but I just don’t have the time right now.  So instead, I’ve decided to cheat and post what my travel buddy Paul wrote to a bunch of our friends!  It sums up Amsterdam, Berlin and Prague pretty well.  When I get some time I’ll try to add in some other stories and additions to those cities!

So here you go in the words of Paul:

Alright friends, it’s currently an off-night for us, and we have cheap internet at the hostel here in Vienna, so I’ll give you a quick update, and only ‘quick’ because these German/Austrian keyboards piss me off. The y and z are switched, and a bunch of other buttons are in strange places!

So we arrived in Vienna this evening after a huge train scheduling debacle. Stupid Prague train station refused to sell us BOTH train tickets we needed to get to Vienna and wanted us to use a eurail day instead! THEN they failed to tell us that the train was actually leaving from a DIFFERENT station! At the last minute we realized this fact and took a speedy cab ride to the proper spot, only to find that the train was late anyway, so it worked out – we even had time to fix the ticket debacle! We haven’t seen much of Vienna yet – just the Wombats hostel (which is great), and a random pub. Tomorrow we start sight-seeing!

The hostels have been amazing so far – we keep getting quad rooms, so it’s like staying in a hotel, but I would say it’s cleaner! On top of that, the bathroom in our hostel in prague was actually STYLISH as well as clean! The only half-dirty place was the ‘flying pig’ in amsterdam, but that had kind of a ‘pot smoker’s haven’ charm to it. There were cushions in the front where people would just… space… out….

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ANYWAY the red light district was larger, better lit, and much more touristy than expected. It was tons of fun, and I didn’t get lost for THAT long (not long enough to find a good window, anyway…. :p). The Anne Frank museum was pretty emotional, and the Van Gough museum was pretty interesting, although I’m not a fan of much of his work (too depressing). Also it rained a LOT. Don’t let me get you down though – it’s a beautiful city, full of canals, and great for walking and getting lost (we did that many times). Oh, and as most of you know, the Heineken experience was worth doing, especially if you like beer!

Getting to Berlin was a bit difficult, since we forgot to validate our Eurail passes (a big no-no) before we got on the train. We had to get off, get them validated, and board a train 2 hours later, hence forfeiting our reservations. In the process of this we lost Justin. He’s still missing actually. Have any of you heard from him??? The city of Berlin was amazing though. It was like a mix of commie flare and western investment! The hostel (circus) was hands down better than I would have EVER expected from a budget accomodation. It was like an Ikea ad, with hanging closets, little plastic rolling night tables with a million drawers, and neat looking beds. It was also large, spotless, and had hardwood floors. The best thing to do (outside of the hostel) was take a bike tour of the city. If you haven’t guessed, there’s a TON of WW2 and cold-war history, so it was quite the tour. We also visited the technical museum, because it apparently compliments the one in Munich. It requires an english audioguide (we were too cheap for that), but it was fantastic nevertheless. There was also a pub crawl, the highlight of which was an old-school run down building PLASTERED in graffiti and with bars on 3 of its 5 levels (the other 2 levels were kind of spooky…). Oh, one last thing about Berlin – it’s cheap as hell! A great city for your value, considering the history, the number of things to do, and the nightlife.

Then it was off to Prague, the train ride for which was actually pretty good. The czech countryside is spectacular. Prague itself is a beautiful, but quite sketchy city. We were not fans of the train station, thanks to the ticketing problems, and I was constantly watching my pockets, but apparenly I was scared for nothing. The food and beer is CHEAP, just so long as you don’t order anything imported. The castle was definately the highlight of the city, but it was worth just walking around aimlessly through the streets. The city is pretty much how you would expect every large european city to look. No buildings over 6 storeys (with a few exceptions on the outskirts), and nothing under 3 storeys. Oh, and cobblestone everywhere. If you go, I’d suggest avoiding the main strip (there really aren’t any bargains) except to see once or twice, and just walk through back-alleys and such. Also the hostel Miss Sophie’s was quite stylish, and also pretty cheap. The nightlife is quite good from what we saw, although we were pretty content meeting other travellers in the hotel basement, which was quite nice (I would describe it as ‘clean, dungeon-y charm’).

Anyway, that’s the trip so far. By my standards we’ve gone out drinking quite a bit, but we’ve definately had our off-nights, and I’m sure it’s nothing compared to Mike’s Greek adventures. More to come in a few city’s time! Up next: Vienna (now), Munich (Friday), Interlaken (Tuesday), and then off to Italy!

Cheers,

Paul (and Sonia, Mike, and… ??Justin??)

Until next time!